Radiation and Regulation in a Post-Fukushima World.

The nuclear reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in March 2011 led to a loss of trust in nuclear power around the globe and acutely in Japan. The reactions of the public in Japan and other countries, such as the United States, and the governmental reactions to the accident offer an opportunity to learn ways to improve safety and communication during and after a nuclear accident.

Causation's nuclear future: applying proportional liability to the Price-Anderson Act.

For more than a quarter century, public discourse has pushed the nuclear-power industry in the direction of heavier regulation and greater scrutiny, effectively halting construction of new reactors. By focusing on contemporary fear of significant accidents, such discourse begs the question of what the nation's court system would actually do should a major nuclear incident cause radiation-induced cancers. Congress's attempt to answer that question is the Price-Anderson Act, a broad statute addressing claims by the victims of a major nuclear accident. Lower courts interpreting the Act have repeatedly encountered a major stumbling block: it declares that judges must apply the antediluvian preponderance-of-the-evidence logic of state tort law, even though radiation science insists that the causes of radiation-induced cancers are more complex. After a major nuclear accident, the Act's paradoxically outdated rules for adjudicating "causation" would make post-incident compensation unworkable. This Note urges that nuclear-power-plant liability should not turn on eighteenth-century tort law. Drawing on modern scientific conclusions regarding the invariably "statistical" nature of cancer, this Note suggests a unitary federal standard for the Price-Anderson Act--that a defendant be deemed to have "caused" a plaintiff's injury in direct proportion to the increased risk of harm the defendant has imposed. This "proportional liability" rule would not only fairly evaluate the costs borne by injured plaintiffs and protect a reawakening nuclear industry from the prospect of bank-breaking litigation, but would prove workable with only minor changes to the Price-Anderson Act's standards of "injury" and "fault."

New regulations for radiation protection for work involving radioactive fallout emitted by the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi APP accident--disposal of contaminated soil and wastes.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Atomic Power Plant that accompanied the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, released a large amount of radioactive material. To rehabilitate the contaminated areas, the government of Japan decided to carry out decontamination work and manage the waste resulting from decontamination. In the summer of 2013, the Ministry of the Environment planned to begin a full-scale process for waste disposal of contaminated soil and wastes removed as part of the decontamination work. The existing regulations were not developed to address such a large amount of contaminated wastes. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), therefore, had to amend the existing regulations for waste disposal workers. The amendment of the general regulation targeted the areas where the existing exposure situation overlaps the planned exposure situation. The MHLW established the demarcation lines between the two regulations to be applied in each situation. The amendment was also intended to establish provisions for the operation of waste disposal facilities that handle large amounts of contaminated materials. Deliberation concerning the regulation was conducted when the facilities were under design; hence, necessary adjustments should be made as needed during the operation of the facilities.

Risk-informed regulation and safety management of nuclear power plants--on the prevention of severe accidents.

There are four operating nuclear power plant (NPP) units in Finland. The Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) power company has two 840 MWe BWR units supplied by Asea-Atom at the Olkiluoto site. The Fortum corporation (formerly IVO) has two 500 MWe VVER 440/213 units at the Loviisa site. In addition, a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by AREVA NP (formerly the Framatome ANP--Siemens AG Consortium) is under construction at the Olkiluoto site. Recently, the Finnish Parliament ratified the government Decision in Principle that the utilities' applications to build two new NPP units are in line with the total good of the society. The Finnish utilities, Fenno power company, and TVO company are in progress of qualifying the type of the new nuclear builds. In Finland, risk-informed applications are formally integrated in the regulatory process of NPPs that are already in the early design phase and these are to run through the construction and operation phases all through the entire plant service time. A plant-specific full-scope probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is required for each NPP. PRAs shall cover internal events, area events (fires, floods), and external events such as harsh weather conditions and seismic events in all operating modes. Special attention is devoted to the use of various risk-informed PRA applications in the licensing of Olkiluoto 3 NPP.

Panel session on international perspectives on the future of nuclear power.

The 2009 National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) Annual Meeting provided an opportunity to exchange viewpoints and consider current information regarding the evolution of selected commercial nuclear power trends worldwide. Within the overall topical context of radiation-related regulation, focus was placed on activities in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States, although general global developments were reviewed to some extent. This paper provides the reader with a sense of these activities as described by the authors and presenters: David Bennett (Environmental Agency, United Kingdom), Alan Hanson (AREVA), Shojiro Matsuura (Japan Nuclear Safety Research Association), and Alexander Marion (Nuclear Energy Institute).

Essential infrastructure: national nuclear regulation.

In order for nuclear power to expand to many countries that do not currently have it, it will be essential for these countries to have laws, regulations, guidance and organizations that can license or permit nuclear power plants and support nuclear facilities, ensure compliance by inspection, and enforce nuclear regulations. The viability of nuclear power worldwide depends on an extremely high level of safety everywhere, and compliance with a number of international treaties is required before supplier nations will provide the material, both hardware and software, to build and operate nuclear power plants. While infrastructure support can be obtained from the IAEA and other countries, an essential core of expertise must exist in the country seeking to establish domestic nuclear power generation. While some reliance can be placed on the safety reviews of standard reactor designs by the nuclear regulators in supplier nations, the certification of fuel design, the quality of instruments, and the matching of a new reactor to a proposed site in the importing nation will require site-specific reviews. National arrangements are also needed for emergency preparedness, environmental protection, fuel transportation and the storage, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste. If foreign contractors and consultants are engaged to perform much of the technical work for the regulatory body(s) that has to be performed by the importing nation, that nation must have a core cadre of technically knowledgeable regulators and an organization to provide management and oversight of the contractors and consultants. Consistency in national nuclear regulations, the deployment of standardized nuclear power plant designs and standardized supporting material infrastructure can promote the safe and secure worldwide growth in nuclear power.

New nuclear build and evolving radiation protection challenges.

Radiological protection has continued to evolve in order to meet emerging challenges and will continue to do so. This paper will discuss the scientific and social challenges that will or may be faced by the radiological protection community in the coming 10 to 20 y and how these may affect what is expected to be a renewed interest in building and operating nuclear power plants for electricity generation.